This year, global business travel spend will rise by seven per cent compared to the previous year’s figure, a new report from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) claims.

Overall, spending will surge to $1.18 trillion in 2014. Originally, the GBTA predicted that spend would only rise by 6.5 per cent. This shows the global business travel market is doing better than expected and that spend is growing at a greater pace than it did in 2013. Spend increased by just 4.5 per cent in 2013 compared to 2012.

This boost is mostly aided by the seven per cent spending growth seen in China, where the business travel market reached $225 billion in 2013 – up from 2000’s total of just $32 billion, reports reuters.com. It’s estimated by the GBTA that China will top the business travel market by 2016, thus over-taking the United States, which currently ranked the sector’s best market.

The GBTA’s list of the 15 markets which spent the most in terms of business travel in 2013 reveals that the UK ranked fifth. Total spend last year was $41 billion, an annual growth of 1.9 per cent, reports buyingbusinesstravel.com.

In its report, the GBTA notes: “Emerging markets have been tested by a weaker external environment, debt imbalances, rising inflation and capital flight. Meanwhile, the US economy has slowly gathered strength, Europe has emerged from recession, and other advanced economies are gradually accelerating.”